A prostitution court case has been formally made against Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, and he will be subject to a trial. Controversy has long surrounded Berlusconi, which has only intensified after it was alleged that he paid for the services of an underage prostitute. He is not required to appear in court for the first case, however. The first hearing is scheduled for April 6. He will need a pretty big personal unsecured loan to get out of this one. Article source - Silvio Berlusconi will go to trial for prostitution in April by MoneyBlogNewz.

Charging the Italian Prime Minister

The controversy of prostitute services in the past few months for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy has been a major concern. The telegraph reports that now law enforcement officials are bringing criminal charges against him. Berlusconi is alleged to have paid for the services of a now-18-year-old who calls herself Ruby the Heartstealer. When the transaction occurred, Ruby, or Karima el-Mahroug, was only 17. The first hearing will be on April 6, as the case was set to be fast tracked by Judge Cristina Di Censo. Berlusconi will even face court case of abuse of powers as Prime Minister.

Throng of demonstrators decries 'Rubygate'

Several protestors, while most were women, were in a protest over the scandal, called &#8220;Rubygate&#8221; saying Berlusconi needed to be removed. He has been to trial for business violations. However, his personal conduct has never been tried before. The New York Times reports that he doesn&#8217;t have much support right now; even though Berlusconi&#8217;s party is currently a majority in parliament. The original Milan case will not require the presence of Berlusconi. Prostitution is legal in Italy, however the service provider must be at least 18.

Berlusconi defends himself saying prostitution didn&#8217;t happen

Past year, Berlusconi had &#8220;bunga bunga&#8221; parties. Karima el-Mahroug was 17 when attending the party. MSNBC reports the first time they met, Berlusconi gave her just a little less than $10,000 at 7,000 euros. Prosecutors will say what it was for. They say sex occurred. Both Ruby and Berlusconi say it didn&#8217;t occur. They were never even intimate. Berlusconi is also charged with abuse of powers, having personally pressured a police officer to let Ruby out of theft court case. He did not want an international incident to take place as she said she was granddaughter of Egyptian president Mubarak.

Granny says "Shame on ya Silvio, payin' fer what ya can get free at home...Silvio Berlusconi: Ruby sex trial plea rejected14 January 2013 - An Italian court has denied the request of former PM Silvio Berlusconi to halt a trial where he is accused of having sex with an under-age prostitute.

The court in Milan also decided it did not need to hear testimony from the woman - dancer Karima El Mahroug. Mr Berlusconi's lawyers requested the trial be halted while he runs in the current election campaign. Both he and Ms Mahroug - better known by her stage name "Ruby Heartstealer" - have denied ever having sex.

Mr Berlusconi allegedly paid Karima El Mahroug (R) for sex when she was under 18

Mr Berlusconi stepped down from a third term as prime minister in November 2011, when he was replaced by the technocrat Mario Monti. His People of Freedom (PDL) party is hoping to form a centre-right coalition government with another party but have not named a candidate for prime minister.

On 7 January, an ally of Mr Berlusconi's said that he would not return as prime minister even if his party won the elections next month. Mr Berlusconi however has not explicitly ruled himself out of running the premiership, saying the candidate for the post "will be decided if we win".

Court denies Berlusconi bid to halt sex trialJan 14,`13 -- A Milan court on Monday rejected a bid by former Premier Silvio Berlusconi to halt his sex-for-hire trial for Italy's general election campaign, a ruling that makes a verdict likely before the February vote.

Berlusconi's lawyer accused the court of `'interfering heavily" in the Italian political campaign by refusing to suspend the trial so Berlusconi can dedicate himself to campaigning for his center-right coalition. `'A verdict will most certainly come before the election. It seems to me this is the clear intent of the court," defense lawyer Niccolo Ghedini told reporters. `'It doesn't bother us, but it should bother citizens since it is obvious that it will impact the electoral campaign." Berlusconi denounced the trial as `'a comedy, a farce, a defamatory hoax," in an interview with Sky TG24.

Prosecutors accused Ghedini of merely seeking to delay a verdict in the nearly 2-year-old trial, which started when Berlusconi was still in office. He resigned some seven months later, making room for Mario Monti's technical government, as the sovereign debt crisis threatened to engulf Italy. Despite his legal woes and sex scandal, Berlusconi's center-right coalition has been gaining in the polls since he actively began campaigning. Berlusconi, 76, also has been boosted by combative televised debates with journalistic critics.

Berlusconi is accused of having paid for sex with a Moroccan woman, Karima el-Mahroug, when she was 17, during racy `'bunga bunga" parties with attractive young women at his villa near Milan, and then using his influence to cover it up. Both he and el-Mahroug have denied sexual relations. Berlusconi has apologized for hosting the parties, saying he was lonely after splitting from his second wife. Veronica Laria left him in 2009, citing alleged dalliances with young women.

El-Mahrough, 20, better known as Ruby, made her first appearance in court on Monday, where she was called by the defense to testify. The court had ordered her to return from a trip abroad and fined her (EURO)200 ($270) after she failed twice to show up. But Berlusconi's lawyers changed their strategy and decided to renounce her testimony, saying they wanted to `'avoid another development in the trial that interferes with the serenity of the election campaign." The prosecution did not include el-Mahroug on its witness list, instead relying on her testimony during the investigation and other evidence to make their case. El-Mahroug's lawyer, Paola Boccardi, said her client wasn't angry that she didn't have to testify, just "surprised that she wasn't heard."

Dat oughta keep him outta the next election...Silvio Berlusconi convicted over Italy wiretap7 March 2013 - Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been convicted and sentenced to a year in jail over an illegal wiretap.

He was accused of arranging for a police wiretap concerning a political rival to be leaked and published in a newspaper run by his brother. Mr Berlusconi is likely to appeal and will remain free in the meantime. He is presently appealing against a tax-fraud conviction and also faces a verdict in a sex trial later in March. The tax fraud conviction stems from a trial last October that saw him sentenced to a year in jail. The sex trial concerns allegations that the 76-year-old paid for sex with an underage prostitute. The BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome says there is no real prospect of Mr Berlusconi going to jail over the wiretap case, but the conviction is another very serious blow to his reputation.

Under Italian law, prison sentences handed down to those over the age of 75 can be commuted to house arrest. It comes weeks after his right-wing coalition did better than expected in a general election that provided no clear winner. However, his coalition looks to be on the margins of efforts to form a new government, and the outcome of this court case is unlikely to have any direct bearing on those negotiations. The other faction leaders have long had utter contempt for everything Mr Berlusconi stands for, and this verdict will only serve to entrench their views, our correspondent adds.

Vendetta claims

Prosecutors brought the wiretap case after a transcript of a phone conversation intercepted by the authorities was published in the newspaper Il Giornale, owned by Mr Berlusconi's brother Paolo. The conversation took place between the head of insurer Unipol and Piero Fassino, who was the leader of the biggest centre-left party and Mr Berlusconi's biggest political rival at the time. Unipol was trying to take over BNL bank in 2005. Magistrates had ordered the wiretap as part of an investigation into inappropriate interference in the takeover. The publication of the transcript in a national newspaper broke secrecy rules, and Mr Berlusconi was accused of obtaining the transcript from the wiretap company used by magistrates.

He was convicted of breaching confidentiality. His brother Paolo was convicted of the same charge and jailed for two years and three months. Analysts say wiretapped conversations are widely published in Italian media, despite the risks of prosecution. In numerous trials over the years, Mr Berlusconi has been accused of charges including accounting fraud, perjury, bribery, corruption, having unlawful sex with a minor, and fraud over the sale of film rights. Mr Berlusconi says he is the target of a vendetta by politically biased prosecutors. He has denied all the accusations against him and has either been acquitted or let off under statutes of limitations.

Berlusconi still in the hospital...Silvio Berlusconi remains hospitalized in ItalyMar 9,`13 -- Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi remained hospitalized Saturday with an eye inflammation, but court-appointed doctors said the condition was not severe enough to prevent him from attending a hearing in his tax fraud appeal.

San Raffaele hospital's chief ophthalmologist, Francesco Bandello, told reporters that Berlusconi's condition, specifically bilateral uveitis, had only moderately improved overnight and he was expected to remain hospitalized at least until Sunday.

Berlusconi's legal team had submitted petitions to delay the hearing Saturday based on the 76-year-old former premier's medical condition. However, the court ordered a visit by independent physicians, who said the ailments were not so severe as to prevent his attendance. The court continued the hearing. Berlusconi's defense lawyer Nicolo Ghedini complained that the court was in a hurry to reach a verdict in the case, due March 23. The appeal is on Berlusconi's October conviction on a tax fraud charge relating to the sale of TV rights to air Hollywood movies on his networks. Prosecutors are seeking to uphold the four-year sentence, which includes a five-year ban on public office.

The court "is not interested at all in the fact that there is a sick defendant," Ghedini said. "It seems that the concern is to avoid having the statute of limitations run out and not in a possible acquittal." He said the statute of limitations expire next year. A verdict is only final once a second appeal to Italy's highest court is completed. On Friday, judges granted a defense petition to delay a hearing in Berlusconi's sensational sex-for-hire trial because of the eye inflammation.

Verdicts in both trials are due in the coming weeks, a politically sensitive time as Italy seeks to negotiate a stable government following inconclusive elections. Berlusconi's center-right coalition finished second, although the center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani has ruled out joining forces in a sort of grand coalition. Talks on forming a new government are not set to begin before March 20, with Parliament convening for the first time next week followed by elections of leaders in both houses.

Mandela Hospitalized But 'No Cause for Alarm' March 09, 2013  Former South African president Nelson Mandela is in a hospital again for the second time since December. Members of President Jacob Zuma's office say it is a scheduled checkup and there is no cause for alarm.

Nelson Mandela checked into the hospital in Pretoria Saturday afternoon. The anti-apartheid icon is 94 years old, and suffers from a variety of ailments, said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj. Like most South Africans, Maharaj refers to the beloved former president by his clan name, Madiba. "We are aware that Madiba has a number of existing conditions, from the knees to his respiratory system. And with his age, people would be prone to small and big setbacks. But in his case, the doctors are monitoring him very carefully - assiduously - and every time they feel there is any reason, they ensure they are on the ball and up and running and attending to it [paying extremely close attention to any change in his condition]," he said.

Maharaj said this hospitalization was routine and should not cause panic. "The doctors are conducting tests and thus far the doctors have indicated that there is no reason for any alarm," he said. Mandela was hospitalized for 18 days for a lung infection and gallstones beginning in December. Before that, he was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital in January 2011 for an acute respiratory infection. He also tested positive for tuberculosis in 1988, during the 27 years he spent in prison for opposing whites-only rule in South Africa.

When the apartheid system collapsed, Mandela became South Africas first black president in 1994, and he subsequently was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for helping bring an end to the country's former racist policies. He stepped down from the presidency in 1999, and retired from public life in 2004. Since then has appeared very rarely.

Bunga bunga!...Woman describes Berlusconi's 'bunga bunga' partiesMay 17,`13 -- Silvio Berlusconi's private disco featured not only aspiring show girls performing striptease acts as sexy nuns and nurses, but also dressed as President Barack Obama and a prominent Milan prosecutor whom the billionaire media mogul has accused of persecuting him, according to the first public sworn testimony by the Moroccan woman at the center of the scandal.

Karima el-Mahroug's testimony Friday at the trial of three former Berlusconi aides accused with procuring her and other women for prostitution confirms a sexually charged atmosphere at the "bunga bunga" parties of the then-sitting premier. The trial is separate from the one in which Berlusconi is charged with paying for sex with a minor - el-Mahroug when she was 17 - and trying to cover it up. El-Mahroug, now 20, said she attended about a half-dozen parties, using her nickname Ruby, and that after each, Berlusconi handed her an envelope with up to 3,000 euros ($3,900) in denominations of 500. She said she later received 30,000 euros cash from the then-premier paid through an intermediary - money that she told Berlusconi she wanted to use to open a beautician salon despite having no formal training. But she denied that Berlusconi had ever given her 5 million euros ($6.43 million). She said she told acquaintances and even her father that she was going to receive such a large sum "as a boast," but that it was a lie to make her seem more important.

The three Berlusconi aides - Emilio Fede, an executive in Berlusconi's media empire; Nicole Minetti, a former dental hygienist, showgirl and local politician, and talent agent Dario "Lele" Mora - are accused of recruiting women for prostitution at the parties and abetting prostitution, including of a minor. They deny the charges. El-Mahroug has made carefully orchestrated statements to the media since the scandal broke, but has never publicly given sworn testimony. Both she and Berlusconi deny having had sex. Dressed soberly with her hair pulled back, El-Mahroug said she first made contact with Berlusconi's inner circle when she participated in a beauty contest organized by Fede in Sicily when she was 16.

After that she made her way to Milan, hoping to find work. She said she tried to get work through another defendant's talent agency but didn't have proper identity documents, and wound up landing a job as a hostess in nightclubs, earning around 100 euros ($130) a night. She frequently changed accommodation during that time, staying for periods of days with people whose names she no longer recalls. Eventually, she ran into Fede at a restaurant, where she reminded him of his promise in Sicily to help her. Shortly thereafter, she was invited to a dinner party, at Berlusconi's villa outside of Milan. She testified that she met the premier that night - on Valentine's Day in 2010 - and that he gave her an envelope of 2,000 to 3,000 euros ($2,600 to $3,900) as she was leaving, saying it was "a little help" and asking for her telephone number, which she gave him.

At that party, she said, she introduced herself as Ruby and told other guests a fake tale that she was Egyptian, that her mother was a famous Arab singer and that she was related to then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. She was 17 at the time but had passed herself off as being 23 or 24. El-Mahroug confirmed Friday what other witnesses have testified previously: that at some of the soirees, young female party guests had dressed up like nuns and danced for Berlusconi and then stripped down to their underwear.

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